


morning mystery

by lambiris



Series: The Case of Huening Bbang-ya [1]
Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Cuddling, Flirting, Fluff, Hugs, M/M, Plushies, Sookai Sleepover, THE sookai hugs, almost kisses, just sookai being sookai, soobin is an honorary member of the huening plushies ensemble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29130705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lambiris/pseuds/lambiris
Summary: soobin is not a morning person. (he might be willing to change his ways.)
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Huening Kai
Series: The Case of Huening Bbang-ya [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137560
Comments: 10
Kudos: 89





	morning mystery

**Author's Note:**

> txt canoodling is all you're ever going to get from me

Waking up early is not something Choi Soobin would do of his own free will. He’s not a morning person; he doesn’t even feel like a person in the morning. Just a year or two ago Hueningkai shared the same sentiments, they would lie in and snuggle until it was  _ absolutely  _ necessary for them to leave their safe haven, that is, the pile of plushies and, of course, each other. 

But alas, time passed, and change came. In place of his adorable cuddle buddy was a species known as an early bird. Very scary. Preys on unfortunate worms. Known to have a 100% hunting success rate. Soobin doesn’t usually associate himself with these kinds of people but he’s Kai. They're conjoined. And they still cuddle sometimes.

One thing that never changed was Hueningkai’s inherent love and protectiveness over his group of adorable, soft-bodied friends (Soobin is an honorary member sans ‘soft’). 

It is this same 'love and protectiveness' that has him up at an ungodly hour. Ungodly hour referring to any digits on the clock succeeded by "AM".

He watches, from where he’s cocooned himself with the blankets, Kai going in and out of their rooms, each time with a new load of plushies in his arms. Where he finds his energy, Soobin doesn’t know. But unlike mortal beings, the sun doesn’t need another to sustain it, right?

“Come back here,” Soobin whines. It’s freezing, even with all the layers he’s bundled himself up in.

Kai pays him no heed, doesn’t even spare him a glance. Thud, thud, thud his footsteps go, the pile of plushies steadily growing in size. One bounces off and finds itself on Soobin’s stomach. Kai dumps another set and starts to separate them. Sorting by color and size.

Soobin rolls onto his back, fishing the plushie from underneath. Just another variation of a molang. He places it in what he deems the appropriate row. Kai shoots him a grateful smile. Finally, a reaction. The attention went as quickly as it came, though, as Kai goes back to ‘organizing’ the dolls.

Soobin sits up, propping his chin on his hand. He watches silently as Kai goes through each one, absolutely immersed. It’s not the first time the younger has done this— a dollcount they coined. It’s during moments like this that they know they might’ve pushed the teasing a little too far. It’s when they surrender the little, cute captives, usually coupled with an egg tart, grape juice, or a small tub of mint choco. 

Between his MCing and preparing for the comeback, Soobin has not had the time to engage in such ‘crimes’. He did room with someone who does so though, on the regular.

“Beomgyu hid Goguma in Yeonjun-hyung’s room,” Soobin offers, hoping to ease the distress he knows Kai is bottling up inside. 

The younger pauses, turning to glance at him. Soobin puts on his most sincere face. Kai buries one hand into the plushie pile, never breaking eye contact, and plucks out, much to Soobin’s surprise, the grey rabbit doll.

Soobin twists to glance at Yeonjun’s room, sure enough, their eldest’s door was left open. 

Kai gives him a small grin, one that Soobin can’t help but mirror, “I knew,” he says. It’s fleeting, the smile. He wants to keep that gaze on him.

“Just so you know, it was Beomgyu who did it,” Soobin says. It was betraying a brother, but he was not about to be a victim (yet again) of another one of Kai’s elaborate pranks. Ones done in retaliation for his kidnapped plushies were always worse. Soobin scares easily, and the younger abuses the fact that Soobin simply can’t get mad at him. He wishes Beomgyu luck—but it’s every man for himself.

“So you were an accomplice,” Kai side-eyes him. Soobin falters. That was not where he wanted it to go. Though he’s glad to see that Kai isn’t gloomy about it, as he initially thought.

“A witness,” he corrects.

“And you didn’t tell me”.

“I just did!”

“ _ After  _ I told you I found it,” Kai says cheekily, gathering flesh from Soobin’s cheek between two fingers. Soobin lets him.

“No, I told you before you told me that you found it,” Soobin starts, his speech impeded by the constant pulling, “I had no way to know that you already have it. Besides, you told me you  _ knew _ !” 

Just as Kai opens his mouth for a response, Soobin tugs him down by the wrist. Their added weight proves too much for his balance and they land on the floor, thankfully cushioned by a stray pillow. He forgets it sometimes— how big Kai has gotten.

Still. Soobin is bigger.

Soobin wraps his leg around the other’s waist, his arms around the ever-broadening chest. Anchored. Good. 

“You found it, didn’t you? Let’s go back to sleep,” he mutters, closing his eyes. He fights off a blush, the fact that Kai’s breath is fanning on his nose does nothing to help his case.

Kai giggles, light and airy, it reverberates through their pressed chests. “You really are my gum,” he teases.

Soobin scowls, opening one eye. Oh, how he instantly regrets it. Kai’s face— too close. And he can’t stop himself from getting a full view. He drinks it in, the handsome, ‘sculpted-by-the-gods’ face. Still growing into his features, but enough to kill a man with how it is right now.

Kai blows an air kiss. Soobin dies.

He recoils, pushing the younger as though he was burnt. Not entirely incorrect. Kai’s laughter, loud and full this time, echoes throughout their empty dorm, filling every crook and cranny with joy.

Soobin throws the blankets around himself, thoroughly embarrassed. He let his guard down when he could’ve just played it off as he always did. Kai will never let Soobin live it down.

His once frigid body is now warm from head to toe. His heart pounded in his ears, blood rushing with adrenaline. He feels a tug on the blanket, he bunches the edges, holding onto it tighter.

“Soobinnie-hyung~” Kai sing-songs, tracing Soobin’s spine. “Soobinnie-hyung~” he repeats, using two fingers to walk down Soobin’s back. Soobin holds his breath when Kai suddenly halts. 

Then his vision flashes white, body jolting as it registers the sharp puncture sinking into his side. The blanket flies as he sits up, one arm swatting at where he assumes the other is, the other soothingly rubbing the throbbing part.

Did Kai just  _ bite  _ him?

“What the hell?” he hisses. When he turns, Kai is looking at him mischievously, teeth proudly bared. His expression quickly morphs into horror when Soobin launches at him. A whole 186cm of muscle and bones tackling him to the ground. 

“Hyung–”

They fall with a thud, destroying the carefully arranged rows of plushies. Soobin lands on all fours, barely managing to cushion Kai’s head with his hand. He’s caging him in.

They stare at each other, breathless. Soobin doesn’t know if he’s out of breath or holding it. 

Kai wears a look of surprise. Soobin watches as the other gathers his expression under a mask. Eyebrows are drawn down, lips pressing back together, jaw relaxing— all in the span of a second. A calm facade. Only his cheeks, slightly pinker than usual, gives him away. But before Soobin could point it out, Kai lifts his head, leaning closer.

Backing away is accepting defeat. Yet he won’t let Kai use the same trick on him twice, he too, leans closer. Too close. Pressing forehead to forehead, noses squished against each other. Hot, airy exhales tickle their lips— the only part of them not joined together. It’s tempting. The ghosts of a kiss.

Soobin sucks his bottom lip, moistening it. Kai’s eyes flicker down at the action, lingers there, tracing his own lips slowly. Soobin is baited, gaze falling to observe the small movement. Completely enraptured with how the pink flesh glistens under a thin coat of saliva.

His arms tremble, straining from holding all of his weight. His legs have long turned into jelly due to the situation he’s caught himself in. Kai too, though clearly at the disadvantage here, is shaking from the effort of keeping himself up. Neither of them moves.

The battlefield is at a standstill. 

“Huening Bbang-ya is missing,” Kai says. He lets himself fall, fully expecting Soobin to cushion his skull. (Which, because he was a good hyung, he did). Who knows what more… shenanigans Kai would come up with if he got more brain damage.

“How could you lose something that big?” Soobin snorts, dropping to the side. He lets out a sigh, relieved at the removal of weight. Both literal and figurative. He rolls his arms, as best as he could laying down anyways, easing tension from the joints.

“I didn’t lose it,” Kai says, from his peripheral Soobin can see him shake his head. “Someone stole it,” he declares, sitting up. Soobin catches his eye, immediately makes grabby arms at him, pushing his lips into a pout.

Kai blinks at him before scooting closer, pulling Soobin’s arm into his lap. He starts to massage it, pressing deft, pianist fingers onto the muscles. Soobin sighs, relaxing in his hold. He hears Kai whispering something along the lines of ‘so dramatic’. He ignores it.

“Who would want to steal that thing?” he jabs. He catches Kai’s wrist mid-air right before the younger reaches for his other arm, “Do my hands too, they hurt.”

“That’s because you game too much,” Kai rolls his eyes. Nonetheless obeying the request.

“Look who’s talking,” Soobin bites back. Kai digs into the area between his thumb and forefinger with extra pressure.

Soobin yelps, glaring at the younger. Kai smiles at him, smug. 

“Who wouldn’t?” he continues, “he’s soft, fluffy, cuddly— worthy of the Huening name!” Kai exclaims, lifting a finger at each ‘quality’ he listed.

Soobin opens his mouth to call out the narcissism— Kai cuts him off, “he can be a pillow, a bed, a cuddle buddy, and even a seat!” 

His mouth flop open and close as he searches for a rebuttal. None. Kai’s got a point. Especially with how their members tend to fall asleep at odd places.

“He was kidnapped!” 

Now  _ that  _ is just Kai being dramatic.

Soobin plays along, “So?” he lifts his other arm, Kai switches, “Who do you think did it?”

“Not you,” Kai says immediately, at this, Soobin perks up. Kai realizes his mistake a little too late— the opening he made for a bout of teasing. His face twists into one of petulance. Soobin smirks, reaching up to sling an arm over Kai’s neck, dragging him down.

“Oh? What’s this? You trust hyung that much?” He ruffles Kai’s hair, “That’s not how you play detective, Huening-ah, even loved ones have to be suspected~”

He can see the way red creeps up the younger’s neck, eventually reaching his cheeks. His face aflame, set on fire by embarrassment. After the stunt he pulled earlier, Soobin isn’t sorry in the least. 

Soobin grins from ear to ear. Kai shoves his arm off, pouty. Soobin tugs at his reddening cheeks just to mess with him.

He thinks he hears Kai honest to god  _ growl  _ (purr is probably more suitable) but didn’t get the time to ponder. Because the younger rips Soobin’s hand away from his face and throws himself at him. (They’ve been doing a lot of that this morning, it seems.)

This action punches a groan out of Soobin. It immediately turns into a whine of surprise when Kai  _ snuggles  _ onto him. He rubs his nose across the exposed skin of Soobin’s collar, waking the goosebumps there. 

“Hyung would have no reason to steal Bbang-ya,” he says against Soobin’s (rapidly beating) chest. Kai looks up, puppy eyes and all, “not when you have the better Huening with you,”

and kisses him.

  
  


On the cheek. 

A peck. Barely brushing over his skin. But the warmth lingers. Like a blazing torch being held against one just freshly dipped in oil, Kai sets Soobin’s face on fire. Instantaneous. With one lick of a flame, his cheeks burn and burn  _ and  _ oh God he’s probably a tomato.

Kai grins, teeth on full display, satisfied with his work. Kai pulls himself up, face to face with Soobin now, and plants another kiss on the tip of his nose. Then another on his forehead. Soobin short-circuits.

Kai pulls a few inches away, and cups Soobin’s rubied face, “Right?” he asks, tilting his head.

Ah. He’s completely disarmed. 

Soobin is entirely unresponsive until Kai makes a move to leave. He automatically locks Kai in place, not even conscious of it; a reflex. Kai chuckles, easing his arms off, “just a moment, hyung.”

Kai drapes the blanket over their bodies, pulling himself impossibly close to Soobin. 

“I have a few suspects in mind,” Kai says, “but for now I just wanna cuddle.”

Cuddle. Right. This is why he loves him.

“What was that for?” Soobin finds his voice, “the kisses?” 

Kai blinks owlishly at him. Soobin bites the inside of his cheek, regretting it. He shouldn’t have asked. 

Kai reaches up, easing the tension between Soobin’s brow. He nuzzles into the touch, closing his eyes. It does nothing to ease his trembling heart, however.

“You looked like you really wanted to… earlier,” Kai whispers. Soobin opens his eyes, and through years of experience, pierces through the facade Kai has put up. He sees the unsureness, nervousness about the whole situation. That pretty face can fool anyone, but not Soobin.

“What if I wanted more?” Soobin asks, interlocking his fingers with Kai’s. The look of surprise that he receives makes him even giddier. 

He maneuvers their intertwined hands, brushes it over Kai’s lips, then his own. 

“Here?”

When Kai smiles it’s like watching a flower bloom at 10x speed. It’s not just his lips. His whole face lights up with delight. All his features bunch upwards, like sunflowers turning to the midday sun. Happy. Exhilarating. 

“Well,” Kai clears his throat, lowering himself, “we have all morning.”

Perhaps Soobin should start waking up earlier then.


End file.
